Senate Republicans make new offer on jobless benefits

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Prospects of 1.4 million unemployed Americans getting their federal jobless benefits back soon brightened on Monday when U.S. Senate Republican negotiators offered a new plan to extend the emergency relief for three months.

Senate Democrats and Republicans planned to meet privately on Tuesday to evaluate the proposal. A vote on it could occur within days.

Long-term unemployment benefits expired on December 28, and President Barack Obama and his Democrats in Congress have since pressed for an unpaid extension of up to one year.

Republicans have insisted on a shorter extension while also demanding that the $6.5 billion cost of extending benefits for three months be covered by government savings elsewhere.

According to a senior aides, the Republican offer would pay for the jobless benefits by extending across-the-board spending cuts, known as "sequestration," for another year - into 2024.

The measure also would clamp down on some unemployment benefits to people who also collect federal disability payments.

"We continue to negotiate in good faith, and we are all encouraged that we are making progress on a package that could pass with bipartisan support," said eight Republican senators who have taken the lead in trying to reach a deal.

The senators said in a statement the proposal included repeal of the recent cuts in the military retiree cost-of-living adjustment included in December's budget agreement and offsets to pay for the unemployment extension and restoring military retiree benefits within the budget window.

If the Democratic-led Senate approves the proposal, it would have to be passed by the Republican-led House of Representatives before it could go to Obama to sign into law.

Since the Senate began wrangling over a possible extension last week, the number of long-term jobless, generally defined as those who have been out of work for at least six months, has grown to 1.4 million from 1.3 million.